lessons 39 and 40
שבת
have a look at the exercises:
יום שישי
yom shishi Friday
שבת
shabbat Saturday
תשע עשרה
tsha' essreh
nineteen
עשרים
essrim
twenty
יפה
yafeh
beautiful (masc.)
יפה
yafah
beautiful (fem.)
איש
ish
man
אשה
ishah
woman
איש יפה
ish yafeh a
beautiful man
אשה יפה
ishah yafah a
beautiful woman
מענין
me'anyen interesting
(masc.)
מענינת
me'anyenet interesting (fem.)
ספר מענין
sefer me'anyen an interesting
book
עיר מענינת
'ir me'anyenet an
interesting city
הספר מענינת
ha sefer me'anyen
the book is interesting
העיר מענינת
ha'ir me'anyenet
the city is interesting
הספר המענינת
hasefer hame'anyen
the interesting book
העיר המענינת
ha'ir hame'anyenet
the interesting city
about sentence structure, the indefinite article 'a' and the verb 'to be' in the present tense:
this is quite an interesting, puzzle like aspect of Hebrew grammar we are dealing with today because of all the omissions we have to subtitute:
We already learned that the present tense of the verb 'to be' is omitted in Hebrew, it is around but nor visible, like a under cover agent, and you have to add it in in your head, to understand what's going on. Especially if your native language is English or German or French and similar ones where it needs to be explicitly stated. If your lanaguage is Russian however I have been told that it works like Hebrew in this instance.
so a sentence like 'ha 'ir yafah' needs to be translated with 'the city is beautiful'
Also, you already know, the indefinite article does not exist in Hebrew, it is implied. So wherever so see a noun on its own, just remember that it would have an 'a' if it were to be translated into English.
'sefer tov' needs to be translated with 'a good book'
And finally when you do have the definite article and it appears in front of the noun and in front of the adjective you have to puase and say to yourself: oups! this is special, it means that there is no verb missin here, it means the the noun and the adjective are linked closely together in a descriptive mode:
'ha 'ir ha yafah' needs to be translated with 'the interesting city'. This time the omission is in English because we don't say 'the city the interesting'
So, when encountering adjectives and nouns together you have to think of a lot of things in the beginning (later on you'll just understand it instinctively):
- nouns and adjectives have a gender: 'ir is femnine, sefer is masculine.
- adjectives need to take on the same gender as the noun they accompany. sefer tov (both masc.)
- if there is no definite article the indefinite article is implied. 'ir yafah = a beautiful city
- if there is no verb, but a definite article, chances are high that an under cover 'to be'
in the present tense is around: ha 'ir yafah = the city is beautiful
- if both the noun and the adjective is accompanied by a definite article then there is
no undercover 'to be' around and it's a purely descriptive clause. ha'ir hayafah = the beautiful city
- and last but not least, adjectives come after the noun, exactly opposite to English
sefer tov = a book good = a good book
That's quite a lot in the beginnig and I only mention it all here to be systematic. But it really isn't all that difficult, it just needs practising a little and we'll get a lot more examples in the posts to come. Never let yourself be intimidated by grammar. Grammar is just a very nice tool to help us understand the structures behind what's going on in a language. It saves huge amounts of effort and time. Imagine you would have to learn every single thing by heart without understanding the rules... it would be an endless tasks.
shalom and lehitra'ot to you all and erev tov!
Anna
